I can't shake the feeling that the lack of recruiting success thus far is due to all the off-season changes around the Pac-12. From the TV contract, the new (or young) coaches that bring energy, facility upgrades around the league, etc. Everyone else in the league is moving, and OSU is standing still (see Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which states a still object ages more rapidly in relation to light/moving objects).

Is this why we feel old, stagnant, irrelevant? Well, you see what I'm getting at (for those who have no idea what I am talking about, here's a simple video explanation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa81lP9MR0I). Perspective shapes an observer's reality via time dilation, and OSU is the guy standing outside Einstein's light-speed train while everyone else is all aboard.

You need to move to small town Oregon. The inbreds here blow their welfare checks at the indian reservation and it’s like a fucking war zone on 4th of july. Big BIG fairgrounds type shits all around. The cops let it slide unless they get extremely stupid. It’s fun fun fun til daddy took the t-bird away.

I grew up in a town like that.
Thing is, I like simple/rural/pastoral life (other than the rednecks). Cities have annoying people (hipsters/metrosexuals, etc) and issues, too. I should start a commune or something because I love/hate things about each.

I went to a David Alan Coe concert in Spokane…now you wanna talk about a whole ‘nother class of rednecks…whoa.

And just kidding you angry. Redneck like you just fine, except when you’re talking about principles of economics/investing or thermodynamics or suchamatter. I think you just do it for ta be making yourself sound smart.

First of all… did you write “nice” and “Chrysler” in the same sentence?

Second… where can I get one of those bumper stickers? That is so absolutely stupid, it has to be one of the best jokes ever. It’s as serious a political statement as the Ministry of Funny Walks is a serious branch of government.

I guess I was talking more about the Jeff Foxworthy type of redneck. Just because you’re from a small town, like to deer hunt, drive a 4×4 truck, and tip back the occassional PBR doesn’t make you a racist/bigot/whatever other stereotype you want to throw around. But hey, as long as you’re painting, you may as well use a broad paint brush, huh?

I note in an ESPN blog for the Big East (or is it ACC?) anyway–that Coach Chryst is already under the gun because of a lack of success on the recruiting front. Indeed, he was noted as not having been a good recruiter at Wisconsin, which, per force, we must conclude was the case when he was in Corvallis. Maybe this goes back further than we suspect.

Actually I went yesterday, got free tickets. But, did not try pulling a wheelie on the hampster wheel.
The atmosphere made you think that you may actually be at the Olympics with all of the crowd.
Hayward field was set up to hold about 20,000 fans.
Anyone know what our new track stadium will hold?

As far as recruiting goes, our problem appears to be the lack of any real or pending NCAA sanctions!
USC ( years probation) has 11 recruits. Having a very bad year will all 11 ranked as 4 stars.
Ohio State ( one year Probation) 14 recruits. Also a bad year with 11 ranked as 4 stars.
Oregon, (pending probation) 8 recruits with 4 being 4 star.

I randomly met a guy who approached me because I was wearing an Oregon State shirt a couple months ago. Turns out he spent the last few years as an assistant football coach at Aloha high school. Apparently all Tyner talked about his freshman and sophomore years was how he was going to be a Beaver someday and how he was going to be the next big star running back for Oregon State. Then after the Sac St. game it was a complete 180 and all he talked about was Oregon. It was a pretty depressing conversation.

I recall everyone posting his tweets about OSU, or talking about his facebook page that had the OSU logo on it…then OSU goes out and lays a turd against Sac State. Sac State. With an experienced QB. Then Tyner apparently left the game in the third quarter of the Sac State game, and later began posting UO’s logo. Now Tyner’s considered by some to be one of the best RB prospects in the country.

The reason I posted the link above is to contrast Tyner’s motivation with Riley’s lack thereof. Tyner”s excited and motivated to graduate from high school early, get to college early and contribute his first season. Riley, who does EVERYTHING slow, has publicly said he doesn’t like it when students go to college early, and prefers they don’t. How can a guy like that recruit highly competitive young men? “You’re too motivated for our program. You need to slow down and find your identity instead of forging it proactively.”

This topic also reminds me of Angry’s earlier threads about Riley’s inability to capitalize on the production of Quizz and the attention he brought to OSU. Another high caliber RB could have been brought into to build off of all of that productivity and attention.

I think these message boards can affect how recruits think about schools and fans when we or they all start to attack kids unnecessarily. These kids are all friends and acquaintances with each other, and when someone doesn’t choose their school and fans go berserk (like UW fans and Walker Williams last year) in a personal way other recruits see that.

They can take critiques and criticisms of their games (if they’re serious about their craft). They can laugh off the “we didn’t want him anyway” statements. But when personal and ancillary attacks come flying at them, I wouldn’t blame them if they held their dead great-great-grandparents’ middle fingers up at us or anyone else responsible for such stupidity.

Of course, that seems to be forgotten pretty quickly when you raid half the other coaching staffs in the conference and poach recruits.

Why would these players or any other 4 or 5 start recruits want to commit to OSU when our football program is most likely facing another losing season, has a “fud e dud” of an AD and a head coach who has his head in the sand? Oregon has so much going for them right now including a great head coach, staff, fan base and facilities.

I agree to a point. I love Terin Solomon’s game, and he’s being reported by Scout and 24/7 to be showing up this spring as possibly one of the elite S’s in the country. I think he’s also the reason the Beavs are still in the Joe Mathis discussion, not that I expect much from that conversation. But I’m told by subscribers to those sites that Solomon could be considered the second best S in the nation after all is said and done. The problem is that he would still be the second best S in his home town, and he would still miss all the buzz because of that.

Stars don’t matter because these sites can’t tell you what these kids are going to be when they get to college. If they considered demeanor, work ethic, durability and intelligence as well as just their games, then I would look more closely at them. I think DJ Welch is a good example of this. I don’t think he had any stars. If he was good for academics immediately, he would have been a four or five star and headed to USC based on his game alone. But he was struggling to qualify, and that meant nobody was willing to take a chance on him. Since nobody was really offering, the pay sites didn’t pay attention to him. Taking all things into account, I would have given him five stars on athletics. I would have had to meet and talk to him to gauge his presence. And I would have bumped him down to an overall three star because of academics. But I like whole evaluations, not just a subscription getting star headline.

Recruiting has never been this staffs strength. They have been able to away with it although and many pollyanna’s will point to the winning seasons and bowl games, however even with those successes the staff has not been able to improve its recruiting and in fact still went down a sure sign that they can’t recruit.

Add the fact that the AD has fallen out of touch and lost the ability to generate the necessary funds to energize and keep the program moving forward. The inability to build on the momentum by both is resulting in futility. With the new revenue from the TV deal all we have heard about is being fiscal responsible and paying down debt, which needs to be done but it could be done a lot easier if you increase the money rather than keep breaking even. You have to spend money wisely to make money while not drowning yourself in debt.

There can be something said for the youthful hunger that other staffs possess, but it seems more and more like a lack of effort. Also, the lack of self evaluation realizing their own deficiency’s in the area and then the utmost defiant nature to show no desire to improve their weaknesses.

It’s not like they are not doing anything, they have offers out to all (most) these kids who have committed elsewhere, but they can’t attract them to the program or sell them on the future. The administration has not done its job to provide the excitement and the upgrades to stimulate the program.

What are you talking about Angry? OSU has 1 recruit committed so far. That’s one more recruit than they had a month ago! *sarcasm* If the glass is half empty or half full, either way we all need another drink!

Thanks for the links Jack. Good reading and why I keep coming back to this site; the beavers football program isn’t doing it for me.

This led me to do some quick reading on Mike Webster, I had forgotten how his terribly his life ended after all of his concussions.

It seems to me a return to soft helmets is warranted. Maybe a soft outer shell, a mid line plastic, and then the interior padding. Some external soft material to absorb energy instead of transfer it. That and a change in medical exam maintenance schedules (frequent), reporting, insurance, and player rotation. Yeah right, in the NFL….

The program has been in a downward spiral for quite awhile now and the news just keeps getting worse (i.e., 7 defections and a horrid start to recruiting). Its to the point where I have little to no motivation to even follow the football program. They will get dominated on both lines again this year and the skill position players are nowhere near the quality they’ve had in the past. Storm Woods and Chris Brown are both unproven commodities, Mannion threw as many picks last year as he did TDs, and the WRs are all unproven outside of Wheaton. Don’t even get me started on the defense. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike Riley ends up quitting before he gets fired. One of the two will happen within the next 2-3 years, if not before. This program does not have a winning attitude anymore.

I am pretty sure most of them were asked to leave. I think that could hurt recruiting though. I am not sure how common yanking scholarships is but I have got to imagine that one of the previous selling points of OSU was that this didn’t really happen.

It does happen every year. Usually it happens before winter term. But often it happens around that time, and kids are allowed to continue with their educations until June. Then they can move on. Or, if they have a solid landing spot, they will leave immediately in order to get their transfer eligibility clock going. But that’s more of a fall event than any other time.

This year, it probably came down to who wanted it more. There were questions about academics with a couple of these kids. There were issues with others missing voluntary sessions or being late for mandatory events. When it was discussed, the issue of their passion not existing anymore arose.

There are no kids in the house keeping this marriage together. You’re either all in or all out.

I think they still may be over the scholarship limit, so there will have to be more of this at some point down the line. Bishop was a quality player, so would have been nice to avoid that loss, but the others I just just interpret as the team getting its house in order. Of course, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know the back story on any of these guys, but the hysteria about mass defections as another sign the team is spiraling out of control seems odd.

I think it would be quite painful to have to play against him. At least my coach would never be able to say I never played to the whistle if I lined up against him. He would just berate me for losing every play.

This season the Beavs will be wearing black helmet stickers with the initials AG. Mike Riley’s role model and life’s inspiration, Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry passed away today. His simple, mild mannered, style has been reflected in Riley’s leadership. It’s too bad he has not been as effective as Sheriff Taylor. JB

Riley is waiting to announce all of the commits at once.
All four names will be made public one day after the National Letters of Intent are due.
MR is on a very limited text messaging plan and does not want to use up any texts that may be needed to keep one of the four on board before then.

I thought that maybe what’s going on is the very thing that the OSU fans used to berrate and belittle the ‘ucks for. Which was asking their recruits not to say anything about their commitment until LOI day. 🙂

According to the Beaver fans, the ‘ucks did that because they were afraid other schools would steal them away.

The above was written in jest, but considering how things are going for OSU I can see why the Beav coaches might be tempted to think that way.

But this year it appears to be a case where the kids who have received OSU offers are choosing to pursue other opportunities.

I’m not quite sure what kids you’re talking about. There are the kids who are highly touted who we always miss on. Then there are the local kids who always seem to be underrated until later. Then we seem to jump in the game late and lose out them because we were as late to the game as any other school.

I’m most upset with the second condition. I think it should always be a priority to meet and talk with the local kids and extend offers if they’re D1 material. Many of them are D1 and better this year, but we’re not even offering? I don’t care if they don’t want to talk to us. Talk to them and offer. Tell them when it all falls through and Sark, Kelly or Fink pull your offer for a five star, we’ll still want you.

Of course, not being late to the local kids would be the first priority. Yes, we were the first D1 to offer Brenner. But it was way late IMO. And this courtesy should have been extended to Kirkland and Rich as well. Then there was Turituri. What was that? We don’t even know he exists until two weeks ago? I knew he existed. And I know about Bryson Sullivan being possibly the best blocking TE on the West Coast. I know about Chad Bach, Matt Sommers, Noah Peterson, Connor Strahm. I absolutely love Titus Makasini and Darien Freeman from up in Washington. And there’s an OLB and a C/LS from Eastern Wa. who are good (and I can’t remember their names).

I don’t know what kind of player he is, but I imagine our staff at least knows about a 6’2″ 220# linebacker out of Astoria named Jeremy Poyer.

The point isn’t that we don’t get a lot of local kids not because there aren’t any local kids. It’s because we treat them like every other school does and act as if we were surprised they were in our backyard all along. Then we end up with the leftovers.

What pisses me off is that there doesn’t seem to be any plan of action. It seems like other programs are very organized and know what they need or like. It seems like we just throw darts and see what hits.

Years ago Riley said that going after local kids was a huge deal and something they concentrated on and were proud of, yet the past four seasons would suggest a total departure from that. Almost like they are looking for the next “James Rodgers” that nobody else is on, because they can’t or WON’T compete against the other programs for top level talent.

The other thing is that it seems like the this staff is perpetuating a nonchalant attitude, and that unwillingness to compete against these programs comes across throughout the entire program. You see it during the Spring, you see it in recruiting, and most importantly you see it on the field. It was not always like this, even when they were getting beat they still were competing the last few years its looked they knew they were defeated. I think that attitude resenates to the kids today.

The biggest problem I find frustrating is being able to communicate how I feel and provide some insight as to what others who are unhappy with the football program and BDC feel to someone who cares at OSU. Sending emails to BDC, Riley or any staff member just means a lower staff member will screen and delete your comments while passing on messages that the head coach and AD want to hear about. So where to go. I have tried the presidents office and always get a reply that he is out of town or to please send your comments to the Athletic Department. A brush off for sure. Those who give the big bucks surly get their message across but how.

A few years ago when UofO head coach Mike Ballotti had a losing season, it was the media in Eugene that helped rally Uck fans to do something about the situation. That is when MB hired Chip Kelley and I believe a new physical training coach. It’s sad that Beaver Nation has nowhere to vent their feeling except great forums and blogs like Angry’s. Can’t get much better than this unless someone hires a PR person.

Why even go there. None of his fans thinks he can own his actions. Why should we?

On a serious note. I think that napkin eating incident was one of the awesomest low points a person could ever have. I mean, there have been people who swallow a bottle of pills, take a shotgun to their heads, beat on their loved ones… or just get in a car and play Russian roulette. Hell, there are people who bottom out by being late to or missing work and getting fired.

Eating a napkin is funny! Own it! Live it! Thank your sky deity that was all he (it’s always a he… don’t argue) had in store for you. Live better!

I see too many signs that fan interest is in decline. OSU will continue to struggle to gain excitement in the program to attract recruits. There is a way out of this but it is not by refusing to change and do things better or differently. Too much staleness, too much slowness, and no can-do attitude to winning from Riley to rally behind.